All children aged 12 to 15 will be vaccinated against coronavirus with plans underway to expand the rollout.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said cabinet's national security committee would consider how to widen the program on Thursday.
"Twelve to 15-year-olds in Australia will be vaccinated," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
Mr Morrison said the decision was consistent with interim advice from the expert immunisation panel ATAGI, with the final findings expected on Friday.
"That will enable us to move forward with the vaccination of 12-15 -year-olds," he said.
There are 1.2 million people aged 12 to 15 in Australia.
Mr Morrison said with 1.8 million doses being administered a week, that age group could be immunised quickly.
The prime minister is confident there will be adequate supply of vaccines to expand the rollout which has been hampered by the pace of imports.
Education Minister Alan Tudge said 220,000 12- to 15-year-olds with compromised immune systems, underlying health conditions or who are Indigenous had already received a jab.
Planning is underway to vaccinate children in schools and a proposal to allow families to receive jabs at the same time is being worked on.
Unvaccinated younger people are increasingly making up a larger proportion of coronavirus cases around Australia.
Mr Tudge said there was no country in the world that had approved vaccines for children under 12.
"While some kids are getting the virus, it doesn't seem to cause significant illness compared to the adult population," he told ABC radio.
Some experts have raised concerns about the lingering effects of the virus on children.
Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said parents should not panic about children being exposed to the disease.
"We don't need to be terrified about the thought that our children might get COVID," he told the ABC.
"They're more robust than we are, they're going to get through it more likely than we are."
Dr Khorshid said data from the United States on vaccinating children under 12 was not expected until September to October.
There were 80 new local coronavirus cases in Victoria on Thursday, while the crisis in NSW continues.
Australia has fully vaccinated 31.56 per cent of its population aged 16 and 54.37 per cent have received one jab.
© AAP 2021